The authentic cockpit dialog was written by Robert J. Serling, the elder brother of Rod Serling. Robert was an airline pilot and aviation writer for United Press International. He is listed in the credits as consultant.
The "dinosaur sequence" was credited to Jack H. Harris, and used a brontosaurus model taken from Dinosaurus! (1960). The expense of the two brief shots ran $2,500, making it the most expensive footage in the original The Twilight Zone (1959).
The captain mentions Idlewild as their destination and the plane is destined for New York according to the narrator. Idlewild was renamed JFK after the president was assassinated in 1963.
Stephen King lifted elements of the plot of "The Odyssey of Flight 33" for his novella "The Langoliers," first published in September 1990. "The Langoliers" concerns a group of airplane passengers that are left in the past where they must find a way back to the present or face the terror of the title creatures, who literally eat past time and space. A character in the story recalls the plot of "The Odyssey of Flight 33" during the course of the action.
Capt. Farver asks Wyatt to contact Weather ship Charlie for a radar fix and a ground speed check. There really was a ship by that name in the North Atlantic located at 52° 44" N 35° 30" W. This was close to the position of 52° N 30° W that Wyatt radios to Gander. The ship was part of a network of weather ships established by the International Civil Aviation Organization in 1948. They were provided by the United States, Canada and some European countries. Charlie was discontinued in 1973.